Perchance to dream

Driving home the other day, I had on my oldies station and a song started:

I could stay awake just to hear you breathing,
Watch you smile while you are sleeping,
While you're far away and dreaming.
I could spend my life in this sweet surrender.
I could stay lost in this moment forever....

And so on.

I thought, I guess his girlfriend doesn't snore. And after another moment's thought: Or drool.

Yet, is a woman who snores and/or drools less worthy of a love song than one who sleeps quietly and prettily?

I'm awake just because you're snoring,
But still I look at you, adoring.
A damp spot on the pillowcase
Is underneath your pretty face.

I snore. I know this because I've asked for honest feedback from, say, my sister, when we share a hotel room. Occasionally I become aware of it on my own because I hear myself snore, just as I'm dropping off to sleep.

I don't drool much. I have drooled in my sleep upon occasion. It seems more likely when I fall asleep on a couch during the day, rather than during my long sleep at night.

Once my sister and I were watching the movie Key Largo, with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. In one scene, the characters have been confined to one room overnight and have fallen asleep in their chairs or, in the case of Lauren Bacall (if I recall correctly—it's been a long time) sitting on the floor, laying her head on an ottoman. She wakes up in the morning and lifts her head from where it rested. She looks beautiful because she's Lauren Bacall and that's what she does. I said to my sister, "If that were me, I'd be like this," and I pantomimed wiping my mouth and face.

In the song I heard in my car the other day, the singer goes on quite a bit about how great it is just to watch her sleeping, but towards the end of the song he ratchets up the drama and hoarsely screams some of the lyrics (because he's Steven Tyler and that's what he does). If she were sweetly sleeping, she'd surely wake up at that point, unless she had in earplugs.

Here's my preferred song for invoking loved ones going to sleep:



And may I wish you, Dear Reader, sweet dreams till sunbeams find you.